Orlando Utility Commission approves plan to add 149MW of PV power to Florida

The Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) has approved a plan to add 149MW of PV power to OUC’s generation portfolio, which will double the utility’s current efforts in the state of Florida. 

The additional PV capacity would generate enough energy to power 27,000 residential customers. This new expansion plan was approved by commissioners at the OUC’s monthly meeting, with the utility given the clearance to negotiate two separate 20-year PPAs with Invenergy.

Under these two proposed PPAs, Invenergy would build and operate a pair of 74.5MW PV installations, each covering 202 hectares of land, near existing OUC transmission lines in Osceola County. These projects would come online in 2022 and 2023. OUC will also plan to test battery storage as a back-up generation option at the sites during cloud cover and at night. 

Clint Bullock, OUC general manager & CEO, said: “As Orlando has grown and transformed over the years, so has OUC. And now, OUC is powering the rapid growth of our community with clean, renewable energy and innovative storage technologies.”

Along with the 108.5MW of PV energy set to come online in 2020, these two PPAs would make OUC the largest user of solar energy in Florida on a watt-per-customer basis.